Cephyron

Never bring up a problem if you don't have a solution. That's one of the first things Zimri Thomas Hinshaw, CEO of Rheom Materials, will tell you about pitching investors. Not because you should hide problems. But because walking into a room with a problem and no direction isn't honesty. It's just uncertainty. And uncertainty without a plan kills momentum faster than failure ever will. Strong founders don't avoid the hard questions. They just don't stop at the question. They show up with a path forward. Even if it's still forming. That's what keeps investors in the room. Share your thoughts in the comments below. Zimri's full story is live on Cephyron. Episode 2 of "How to Raise Your First Million." Sign up to access www.cephyron.com Jason Ethier Nada Ahmed Soo Hyun Choi #Cephyron #Fundraising #FounderStories #HowToRaiseYourFirstMillion #EnergyTech #ClimateTech

Liftoff 2026 is now on Cephyron. If you're an energy or climatetech founder raising in the next six months, this is where your round gets built. A 10-week virtual fundraising sprint conducted by Jason Ethier and Payal Patel, starting May 4. And through Cephyron Boost, you don't just get the program. You get everything around it: — Weekly investor matches — Live investor database with real-time insights — Built-in support for updates and outreach — EIR coaching + the full 10-week Liftoff experience — One platform your whole team can use Boost is 50% off for a limited time. Deadline to apply: April 24, 2026. Your raise doesn't start when you close. It starts when you build the system around it. Sign up today https://loom.ly/Ue7fUYE Energytech Cypher #Liftoff2026 #EnergyTech #ClimateTech #Fundraising #Startups #VentureCapital #CephyronBoost #Founders #RaiseSmart

Episode 2 of "How to Raise Your First Million" is here, and this one made us smile. Meet Zimri Thomas Hinshaw, CEO and founder of Rheom Materials, building bio-based alternatives to petrochemical plastics, from sustainable leather to hard plastic replacements, designed to scale with existing infrastructure. Zimri raised his first check before he even graduated from college. Not with a polished deck. Not with warm intros. With two pillows, his mother sewed. He traded them for a photography session at a design agency in Philadelphia. Used those photos to build a website. Walked into SOSV SF & NY (Fka IndieBio) looking like a company twice his size. They invested. That's Zimri. Resourceful, sharp, and completely committed to the vision. From piecing together his first $100K from four angels to landing a lead investor who reached out through his website while he wasn't even raising, his story reminds you that fundraising isn't always about who you know. Sometimes it's about what you're willing to do to get in the room. "Fundraising is really just selling your vision." Simple on the surface. Complicated in practice. Zimri breaks down all the little things in between. Full conversation hosted by Jason Ethier is live on Cephyron. Sign up today to hear more inspiring stories of founders who have successfully raised capital www.cephyron.com Nada Ahmed | Soo Hyun Choi | Energytech Cypher | Marlies Jongens #Cephyron #Fundraising #FounderStories #HowToRaiseYourFirstMillion #EnergyTech #ClimateTech

Michael Longo, CEO of Anax Power gave us his 60-second elevator pitch. Anax built the ATE-500, a turboexpander that captures that wasted pressure energy and converts it into clean, emissions-free electricity. No combustion. No new fuel. Just power that was always there, finally being used. They've already deployed at pipeline stations in Pennsylvania, signed with Enbridge, one of North America's largest pipeline operators, and raised over $10M to scale. So why does the pitch still matter? Because even the best technology doesn't raise capital on its own. Investors don't just fund ideas. They fund founders who can communicate the problem, the solution, and the opportunity with clarity and conviction. In 60 seconds or less. Michael has a compelling story, making every word earn its place. That's the difference between a pitch that gets a follow-up meeting and one that gets a polite pass. If you're building in energy or climate and you're preparing to raise, watch this and ask yourself: could you tell your story this clearly? Decypher how to build it with Cephyron. Sign up at www.cephyron.com Jason Ethier Nada Ahmed Soo Hyun Choi #Cephyron #ElevatorPitch #PitchFeedback #AnaxPower #EnergyTech #ClimateTech #Fundraising #NaturalGas

Applications are now open for #Liftoff2026 — a 10-week fundraising sprint for early-stage energy and climatetech founders who are serious about raising their first round. Last year, we at Energytech Cypher had the privilege of building alongside some of the most driven energy and climatetech founders we've ever met — Emily Avagliano| Jo Clark| Marna Meier, LSSBB | Rekha Patel | Sharita M. Humphrey| Hermann Lebit| Isaiah Jamail| Junho Lee, PhD | Lee H. Burchfield | Scott Macadam | Panagiotis Koutros | Anwar Sadek, Ph.D. | Pranav S Tiwari | Rick Gillis | Sean Thomas, PE | Tejus Mane | Benjamin Ly | Cody Cupp | Ian Uriarte | Patrick Waldo | Stephen Ojji | Venancio Méndez Levy, P.E. We learned from the best — Jason Ethier Payal Patel, Alex Gras Sujatha Kumar Moji Karimi Collin McLelland Fracslap 👿 Mitra Miller Neal Dikeman Evan Erickson Scott Craig and walked away knowing exactly what it takes to build a fundable company in this space. This year, Liftoff goes virtual. Every Monday from May 4, join live from anywhere in the world, no matter where you're building from. The program wraps with what our Cohort 1 founders called the most valuable experience of the journey: a live, in-person negotiation simulation in Houston, TX. You'll pitch, negotiate, and close a simulated round with real investors in the room. To access Liftoff, sign up for Cephyron Boost — now at 50% off for a limited time. Here's what you get with Boost: ✅ Liftoff 2026 — full 10-week virtual fundraising program ✅ Live in-person capstone simulation in Houston, TX ✅ EIR coaching — 10 hours/year with experienced investors ✅ Full investor database access with real-time updates ✅ 10 investor recommendations per week, matched to your raise ✅ Unlimited team members on the platform ✅ Quarterly investor newsletter — ghostwritten for you ✅ Cephyron IRM — your full fundraising command center Normally $500/month. Right now, just $250/month. Save 50%. Get double the value. For a limited time only. 📅 Program starts May 4, 2026 ⏳ Applications close April 15 Link in the comments Signup now www.cephyron.com Nada Ahmed Soo Hyun Choi Maisha Rumman #Liftoff2026 #EnergyTech #ClimateTech #Fundraising #CephyronBoost #HoustonInnovation #EnergyTechNexus #ClimateStartups #Founders #VentureCapital

During CERAWeek by S&P Global, instead of just networking, we asked founders to deliver their 60-second pitch. Andrew Lane, Co-Founder & CEO of Capwell Services, came with a solid pitch — clear, confident, well-delivered. We did a live breakdown of his pitch: what worked, what could be sharper, and how to make it resonate with investors. One thing is clear: Most founders don’t struggle with building great companies, they struggle with communicating them clearly. That’s the gap we’re focused on closing while building Cephyron. If you can’t explain it simply, you can’t scale it. We’ll be sharing more of these real #pitches, real #feedback, real #improvement. #Decypher how to build your pitch to investors with Cephyron. Learn more at www.cephyron.com Jason Ethier Nada Ahmed Soo Hyun Choi #CERAWeek #EnergyTech #Startups #FounderJourney #InvestorPitch #Cephyron

Most founders pitch to inspire. Investors evaluate to decide In a short window, they're scanning for clarity: What does this company actually do? Why does it exist now? Where does it fail today? And what evidence suggests those failures are becoming manageable? They aren't listening for inspiration. They're checking for internal coherence. Our new blog on " What goes in a Good Pitch Deck" is out today. If you're building your pitch deck, give it a read here https://loom.ly/Utda_Ms Jason Ethier Nada AhmedSoo Hyun Choi #Cephyron #Fundraising #PitchDeck #Startups #AI #Investors #IRM

Trevor Best, CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics, gave us 3 fundraising lessons most founders learn the hard way. 1. The first check is always the hardest, but it's the only one that matters to start. Trevor's first real investor check was $50K. That single check catalyzed $500K, which snowballed into $900K. The round didn't close because it was ready. It closed because someone made it feel like it was happening. Once people saw momentum, they moved. The lesson: you don't need a big lead. You need activation energy. 2. You have to build pressure for a round to close, ethically and intelligently. Rounds don't close because they "might" happen. They close when investors feel like it's going to happen with or without them. Trevor breaks down exactly how he creates that pressure — the two ways he's seen it actually work in the early days, and what happens when that pressure disappears overnight. 3. Stop pitching the brutal truth. Start pitching the awesome truth. 90% of startups die. Investors know that. You know that. So stop leading with it. Trevor has a framework for finding the line between what's real and what's just a great story and riding it all the way to a term sheet. It's the most tactical thing we've heard on investor psychology in a long time. He calls it the awesome truth. This is just a glimpse of what Trevor shares in Episode 1 of #HowtoRaiseYourFirstMillion — our founder story series on Cephyron. The full conversation goes deep on data rooms, investor pipelines, term sheets, and what it actually takes to raise across multiple rounds in energy and climate. Sign up at www.cephyron.com to listen to the full interview. Jason Ethier Nada Ahmed Soo Hyun Choi #Cephyron #Fundraising #FounderStories #EnergyTech #ClimateTech #Startups

CERAWeek by S&P Global just wrapped in Houston. 10,000+ energy leaders. One clear message: The "Energy Transition" is now the "Energy Expansion." The question is no longer "How clean?" It's "How fast. How reliable. How secure." Geopolitical rivalry, tariffs, fragmented supply chains — investors aren't funding "someday" anymore. They're funding "today." For energy tech founders, the margin for error in fundraising just got thinner. Which is exactly why what Trevor Best did back in 2018 matters right now. While everyone was all-in on hydrogen, Trevor was quietly building a parallel path — sustainable aviation fuel — on the back burner at Syzygy Plasmonics . He knew markets shift and optionality is survival. When the shift came, he was ready. The founders who raise in this environment won't have the perfect pitch for today's conditions. They'll have the discipline to run a precise process; finding the right investors, building real conviction, not blasting a list and hoping. That's what we built Cephyron for. An IRM built by energy tech founders, for founders navigating exactly this moment. 👉 www.cephyron.com Trevor's full fundraising story is live — Episode 1 of How to Raise Your First Million. Jason Ethier Nada Ahmed Soo Hyun Choi Energytech Cypher #Cephyron #CERAWeek2026 #EnergyTech #ClimateTech #Fundraising #FounderStories #HowToRaiseYourFirstMillion #EnergyExpansion

First time building a pitch deck? Don't start from scratch. Don't Google templates. Don't ask ChatGPT. Go to GUY KAWASAKI's 10/20/30 deck. 10 slides. 20 minutes. 30 point font minimum. That's the advice from Trevor Best, CEO of Syzygy Plasmonics — a founder who's raised significant capital scaling deep-tech hardware in Houston's energy scene. Build the Kawasaki deck first. Get in the room. Start pitching. Then listen. What questions keep coming up? What are investors always asking? That's your signal. Go back and restructure your deck to answer those questions before they're even asked. Listen to this inspiring conversation with Trevor about his fundraising journey on www.Cephyron.com Sign up Today Jason Ethier Nada Ahmed Soo Hyun Choi #Cephyron #Fundraising #Howtoraiseyourfirstmillion #UnderstandingInvestors #Pitchdecks